Am I The Only Dinosaur Here?

[LizzieMaine]

And almost all of them have that gravelly "older Sylvia Sidney/Brenda Vaccaro/Suzanne Pleshette" voice. A friend and I refer to them as "smoker moms".

That was one of my favorite voices to do in my radio days. "Hey kid ya wanna run out an git me a cahton of Chestafields?" Kick over any beano hall in New England and dozens of these gals will scurry for cover.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Ah! Classic last episode/end of the NEW Bob Newhart show when he wakes up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette and says "I just had the strangest dream."

Time is a strange thing (Dr Who would agree). Was born into a very 1950s household. But somewhere I have a picture of me with shoulder length hair in about 1974. By 1981 I was wearing "Angels flights" (anyone remember those?) In the 90s I was climbing the corporate lader. Then kids etc. Yikes. I'm a living breathing stereotype of each decade! Some things that would have appauled me in my youth now seem absolutely normal, which is a good thing. Some bagage from my youth I can't shake for the life of me. That is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Thank heavens my kids appreciate the music of my generation. Mostly I am surprised when I see celebrities who once were the very personification of YOUTH; and now they are old and creaky. Paul Simon's farewell tour, anyone? I remember when protesting the Vietnam War was considered ---what they call now-- "woke". Most of the people I work with know nothing about it. I ran into a young woman the other day who had no idea who Monica Lewinski was. Yet, oddly enough... I seem to be headed in the other direction: 1950s, 1940s, 1930s. Very Timey-wimey as the Doctor once said.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Time is a strange thing (Dr Who would agree). Was born into a very 1950s household. But somewhere I have a picture of me with shoulder length hair in about 1974. By 1981 I was wearing "Angels flights" (anyone remember those?) In the 90s I was climbing the corporate lader. Then kids etc. Yikes. I'm a living breathing stereotype of each decade!

As I was making my way through high school in the mid- to late-70s those Angels Flight polyester pants were suddenly everywhere. Around the same time the popular pants among the female students was Dittos jeans--made from a cotton material in a variety of colors, but the selling point was an "inverted U" shaped seam across the buttocks that somehow transformed every girl's backside into a thing of beauty regardless of her physique. I mention this because the girl I was dating at the time used Dittos jeans as an example to convince me to buy a pair of Angels Flight pants for myself. "You know how you guys all go crazy over Dittos jeans? That's what Angels Flight pants do for us girls." So, wanting to please this young lady who was in fact my "first love", I ended up getting two pair of Angels Flight pants. Ugh, the things we will do for the people we love.

...I remember when protesting the Vietnam War was considered ---what they call now-- "woke". Most of the people I work with know nothing about it. I ran into a young woman the other day who had no idea who Monica Lewinski was. Yet, oddly enough... I seem to be headed in the other direction: 1950s, 1940s, 1930s. Very Timey-wimey as the Doctor once said.

Years ago I read an online article which stated the vast majority of people living today have no interest in anything that pre-dates their existence regardless of when they were born. There are always exceptions but, based on conversations I've had with people of varying ages, I can't disagree.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Stuck in the 60s and 70s blues, eh? Eternal adolescence in the age of the new and the Now.
I dig.
Grew up in the 70s - 80s. But my town was a bit backwards, musically speaking. In 1982, we picked our prom song by vote. At least four Beatles songs on the ballot.
So we wound up with “Yesterday” as the prom tune. Really. Kinda depressing lyrics for a prom song.
I have read a convincing article that in fashion and music, we as a culture are stuck in the 90s. Corporate Casualism. Jeans, cargo shorts, T-shirts, ball caps with logos, sneakers or Vans still remain popular fashion. 18 years and only the slogans on the hoodies or T-shirts have changed.
So stuck in the 60s and 70s is not so bad. Times of change and revolutions! Helter Skelter! Pink Floyd. But bad coffee.
The weed is better now, too!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

For our junior high school graduation in 1978 the song they played was Whispering, a song originally recorded by Paul Whiteman in 1920.

 

[vitanola]

With or without slide whistle?

 

[Edward]

I grew up in Northern Ireland in the 70s/80s and into the nineties (when I finally escaped, in early 1999, I was twenty-four). NI was always backward - only to be expected in a place where most people's sense of identity was firmly rooted in seventeenth century politics, and those identity politics were more important than life and death (not to mention that over a period of thirty years, which overlapped with my entire childhood - I was turning twenty when the IRA ceasefire took effect in September 1994 - it caused rather a lot of the latter. 3,000ish, all told). I remember a lot about the seventies, from mid 76 onwards, though 'my' seventies now is a seventies far removed from what I actually experienced, one deeply rooted in the punk rock subcultures of the Bowery and London both, with, of course, a peculiar Belfast element (where being a punk really meant something, and could be dangerous in a way it never dreamed of elsewhere). Most of my interest in that scene grew out of a rejection of the eighties around me by my middle teens, sickened of the mindlessness of the eighties mainstream and also the casual misogyny and conformism of the supposed wild-man heavy metal scene. In the nineties, a lot of stuff I liked played in the mainstream playground for a brief time (grunge, early Britpop, before it turned into flag-waving mediocrity) and such. Probably around then that I also got seriously into the blues, early rock and roll and so on. The sixties I like more of than I often realise, though again, mostly subculture-based, which doesn't jive with the main nostalgia market. The Doors. Velvet Underground. Rockers in the UK (the original 'vintage' movement in many ways). But I have a real and strong hatred for the Sixties Nostalgia of the mainstream - people dressing like flower children and only listening to early Beatles..... ugh. Course, now I'm also the bitter old man sneering at the kids getting into the eighties, as those of us with any sense who had to live through them once wouldn't volunteer to again!

My interest in the 50s and later the 30s and 40s is in different bits and pieces and came later, though it's very much in specific bits. I'd love to visit (mostly to buy clothes and records...), but I sure wouldn't want to lived back then - or in any other decade since. I've been lucky that in my life I've felt things have improved as I've gone along - I'm not a sufferer of any kind of Tom Buchanan syndrome. For me it's not about wanting to live in the past but rather preserving what was good about it while jettisoning the bad. I like to try to be open to the new, though I've reached a point where 'new' alone is of no good to me unless it offers a benefit. I'm far too much a fan of the web to give that up.

 

[GHT]

I'm not a sufferer of any kind of Tom Buchanan syndrome. For me it's not about wanting to live in the past but rather preserving what was good about it while jettisoning the bad. I like to try to be open to the new, though I've reached a point where 'new' alone is of no good to me unless it offers a benefit. I'm far too much a fan of the web to give that up.

What, I wonder, would be the reaction to a thread titled: The Internet, a blessing or a curse? It's something that I've heard from a number of sources, the curse being the pond life that frequents social media and the prevalence of plagiarism, not just the fraudulent copying of other people's work, but the detrimental spreading of false news. The blessing being the instant contact with the world, it's been a Godsend to many a small business. On balance I guess it would be the latter, but the spread of terrorism and organised crime means that the goodies have always got to up their game to stay one step ahead of the baddies.

 

[Edward]

What, I wonder, would be the reaction to a thread titled: The Internet, a blessing or a curse? It's something that I've heard from a number of sources, the curse being the pond life that frequents social media and the prevalence of plagiarism, not just the fraudulent copying of other people's work, but the detrimental spreading of false news. The blessing being the instant contact with the world, it's been a Godsend to many a small business. On balance I guess it would be the latter, but the spread of terrorism and organised crime means that the goodies have always got to up their game to stay one step ahead of the baddies.

I suspect round here we'd have a fair few negative responses among the positive. I'm always amused when people use the internet to impress upon others how very vintage they are, and ho much they dislike the modern world. In reality, though, an objective analysis would probably play out in the same manner with the internet as if applied to the telephone, electricity, air-travel, or rocket science.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Organized crime and corruption and all such as that never had any trouble spreading before the Internet. As far as terrorism goes -- both the international kind and the kind in your own backyard -- the net does make it easier to know what's actually going on in those circles if you know what rotting logs and wet rocks to look under. I wouldn't know that actual Nazis were trying to form a colony in the northern part of my state if I hadn't come across them online.

I have extremely mixed feelings about the internet. I started using it in 1996, when it was still pretty low-key/DIY/grassroots compared to what it became a few years later when the Boys realized what a tremendous force for pushing their agenda it could be.

Most of the things I do online are the same things I did in 1996 -- I stay away from the stuff that fills me with blind sputtering rage, and I wouldn't let a kid get within twenty feet of a computer until they'd come to understand what the modern Internet is all about and had learned some defenses. The Internet has its place, but its place is not brainwashing me, exploiting me, or picking my pocket.

 

[Edward]

Here in the UK, back in September 2011 there were a series of riots, often organised by social media. The politicians wanted to shut it down. The police, however, loved it as it provided both advance warning, and helped to evidence intent.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The internet is the new opium of the people.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I love the internet. There is so much useful information you can easily locate and enjoy. But anything good also has a shadow side and can be used harmfully. I surf carefully and rarely encounter anything reprehensible.

By choice I have never been on Facebook or any kind of social media and do not have any reason to be contacted or found by anyone.